TEDx Cape Town: Creating sustainable finance

Presentation in July 2012: Financial institutions should be in the background, enabling the real economy, not at the forefront, as now. This transformation can only take place when individual savers and investors recognise their collective power and insist on greater accountability.

This is what I set out to say (in summary):

– Money used to be an economic enabler, now it’s central and is giving rise to an unsustainable economic system which has created many problems.

– We have a framework for solving the problems. Are the two (growth versus solutions) mutually exclusive?

– No, since we are all better off when we solve the problems:
– They don’t need much capital to solve
– It make sense to direct capital to solving via the mechanism of sustainable finance
– Still on the fringes of the mainstream now.

– But there are barriers to the transition: inertia, uncertainty and fear of failure.

– These barriers need a popular uprising to overcome them:
– Join in by thinking, practising and then teaching those around you
– This is a moment in time when the mouse needs to move the elephant in a different direction.

What can you do?

Interrogate the custodians of your money to find out where your money goes. Like, follow, Tweet and talk about sustainable finance, in order to demonstrate demand for a new financial way, i.e feed the mice.